Key words

gamete

Kingdom Animalia:
Echinodermata
Starfish
Oral view
arm

The Echinodermata
The Echinodermata include over 6,000
species, all of which live in marine
environments. The phylum includes
the sea urchins and starfishes, but not
fish, because echinoderms possess
neither gills nor vertebrae.
Echinoderms are radially symmetrical,
which means that their body consists
of legs or rays radiating out from a
central hub, like a bicycle wheel.

mouth

ambulacral groove

madreporite
stone canal

AboraI dissection

cardiac
stomach
anus

pyloric stomach

rectal sac

Starfish body structure

The central area of the starfish
contains the stomach and intestines,
though these are continuous with
tubes that run out along each of the
rays. Starfish can take food into their
gut but often eat by everting the
stomach onto the prey and digesting it
outside the starfish body. They can eat
bivalves like mollusks by prying apart
the shells slightly and then inserting
their stomach into the gap. After
digestion is completed, the mollusk is
just an empty shell.
Starfish move using many tiny feet on
the lower surface of the body. These
structures, called tube feet, have
suckers on the end that can hold tight
to prey.
Starfish have limited powers of
regeneration and can grow back an
arm that has been removed given
sufficient time and good conditions. In
some species, a severed ray can
develop into a complete new starfish.
Starfish commonly reproduce by a
process called free-spawning. They
release their gametes into the water,
where they are fertilized by gametes
from the opposite sex.

Diagram Visual Information Ltd.

hemal
canal

pyloric
cecum
digestive
gland
ring
canal
esophagus
mouth
gonopore
ampulla

radial canal

gonad

Transverse section of arm

radial canal
pyloric cecum

papula (gill)

digestive gland

spine
gonad
ampulla
radial nerve
ossicle
lateral canal

tube foot